298 



BRITISH GRASSES. 



acuminate, spreading, striated, rough at the edges, under- 

 neath very smooth and glaucous, fifteen upon the stem, one 

 foot long, often split at their summits; sheaths cylindric, 

 striated, smooth ; ligules very short, panicle erect, diffused, 

 much branched, very large, chocolate-coloured, drooping 

 to one side; branches numerous, compound, lower ones 

 half whorled, angular, often with a tuft of fine hair at their 

 base ; spikelets numerous, narrow, containing three awn- 

 less florets ; outer glumes unequal, acute, keeled ; flowering 

 glume lanceolate, three-ribbed; palea short, delicately fringed 

 on the upper part ; seed covered with the indurated corolla. 



This plant is so common, that we are apt to overlook 

 its great beauty. As it stands on the river's bank, 



mirroring itself in the trans- 

 parent stream, its stately 

 stem, clothed all the way up 

 with broad pennons of leafy 

 green, and crowned with a 

 glossy plume of chocolate flo- 

 rets, a more beautiful object 

 can scarcely be imagined. 

 And it is as useful as it is 

 beautiful. Mr. Gorrie, in 

 treating of agriculture, says, 

 " In places suitable for it, 

 that is, too wet and boggy 

 for osiers, no plant will be 

 found so profitable as the 

 Arundo Phrag7nites y 0Y Com- 

 mon Reed.- It grows where no other useful plant will, 

 it requires no care or cultivation, and the only expense 

 is in cutting it down. Though reeds are grown to the 

 greatest extent in the Fens, yet the following will show 



